Osborn Inmate Stabbed During Fight

SOMERS — An inmate was stabbed in the chest with a pair of scissors during a fight with another prisoner at Osborn Correctional Institution Monday morning, correction officials said.

At around 10:15 a.m., two inmates, Clark Wilson and Rudyard Richards, began arguing in the industrial arts area over a job assignment, said William Flower, a state Department of Correction spokesman.

Wilson struck Richards over the head with a broomstick, Flower said. Richards responded by lunging at Wilson with a pair of scissors and cutting him in the chest, officials said. Wilson was taken to Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford to be treated for two stab wounds. He was listed in satisfactory condition, Flower said.

Richards, 43, of Stamford, is serving a six-year sentence for sale of a controlled substance, Flower said. Wilson, 34, of Bridgeport, is serving an 11-year sentence for burglary, he said.

Flower said there was no indication the confrontation was gang-related. However, guards' union officials say a recent spate of assaults between inmates at Osborn has guards nervous about a surge in gang activity.

``In the last few weeks, there have been a few gang-related incidents at Osborn,'' said Michael Minney, the head of the Enfield-area guards' union. ``If these problems aren't rectified, they could be exacerbated.

``But I have the utmost respect for the warden [Leslie Brooks] at Osborn and I'm confident he's on top of things,'' Minney said.